Over The Edge
by Suziki
Summary: Just another bad day and another complicated case.From different points of view. First FanFic. PLz Plz review.
1. The Vic and Catherine

**Disclaimer: i dont own anythingto do with CSI**

**The geography and some of the language and stuffmight suck but just pleaseignore it and pretend that there is a cliff face next to Lake Mead if there isn't. I tried my best but i live in England and am off to america for the first time this Christmas. Also this is my first fanfic.**

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It was almost 3 am as the young teenage boy ran while someone droned at him to speed up or prepare to lose. He was running along a deserated stretch of highway that ran steeply upwards clinging to the side of a cliff. To go off the edge either meant that you'd be swimming with the fishes or, if you were even more unluky, you would land on a ledge where you would die slowly and painfully and aware of the vultures that were your only company during your last moments. 

This ofcourse, meant that the cliff was a hot spot for suicides and it was popular for people to go over in thier cars. Thereby securing thatyou couldn't back out at the last minute. The council were sick off repairing the railing which was falling apart in more than oneplace.

The boy closed his eyes to focus on his breathing.For a while he shut out the rest of the world, concentrating on controlling his aching muscles. As he ran, the boy counted, controlling his pace and breathing.

After a whilehe could go no futher,he opened his eyes to look for the onethat produced the drone to relay this information; instead, he wasfaced withan oncomingtruck.

Before he can blink the truck hit the boy head-on and sent him flying backwards. Tyres screech as the truck lost control andwent careeringover the edge. Then a second vehicle hit the barrier as a land rover hastly changes direction andspeeds off inthe direction thatthe boy had been coming from.

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The rising sun cast shadows over the scene that was already swarming withsleep-deprived police officers.Catherine Willowshovered near a white body bag with a cup of coffee. This was the last thing she needed. She had finished her grave yard shift an hour earlier and wanted nothing more than to go home, see Lindsey and then fling herself onto her bed. Someone was going to suffer and it wouldprobably bethe next person she had to talk to.

After a while, a short, balding man, also known as Conrad Ecklie,walked over and nodded in recognition.She shot him a deadly look which would have made any normal person change direction. But then, no-one had ever been mad enough to call Ecklie normal.He took no noticeand insteadstarted to talk inhis usualdry, bored voice.

' Dead male, no ID, in his teens, hit by something big.'

He stopped to take a breathe which was Catherine felt was hercue to cut in.

' Where's Brass? I thought you didn't do field stuff. You might break a nail.'

Ecklie finally sensing her bad mood chose not toreply and simply turned and walked towards the media that was gathering. That he could cope with.


	2. Ecklie and Grissom

**I've come to a conclusion that this is to be set after Grave Danger but beforeBodies in Motion. Also being buried alive is gonna make you slightly freaked but people have already done the whole Nick angst thing so for this story his freakouts are going to be at a minimum.**

**Bodies in Motion is finally showing on Channel 5 tonight (England). Yah!

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"Mr Ecklie! Mr Ecklie!"**

He was surrounded with no escape. 'It's only the public aspect, they said, just some paper work and cleaning up other people's messes. Humph!' he thought.' Why the hell did I take this job? I've never been good with people.' He forced himself out of his head and back into reality.

As he was about to start giving the media some 'politically' correct answers a familiar black _(Gil's car) _drove past him coming to a halt a couple of metres away. It came a little too close for comfort but he knew an escape when it nearly ran him over and this was his.

He excused himself from the reporters, saying he needed to confer with a colleague to find out more details, and walked away as quickly as he politely could. On reaching the driver's side of the car he knocked on the window. After a few seconds, which were a few too long for him, the window was rolled down.

"Yes?" the driver asked almost too politely.

"Grissom you're late! I wouldn't want to have to give you a bad report because of tardiness."

Now he remembered why he had taken this job. To piss off every one he possibly could and especially the man sat right in front of him. So what if the Grave Yard shift had solved more cases, he had never let one of his guys get buried alive and so what if the Grave Yard were friends outside of work, none of his staff had ever had a gambling problem. In fact the Grave Yard shift, in his opinion, was made up of a bunch of trouble-making misfits. He had taken the job to prove to Grissom that, even if the Grave Yard shift was better than the Day Shift (although he would never admit it out loud), as a CSI, Ecklie was going to do better. But what really got on his nerves was that the other man didn't seem to care.

"Come now! We both know that's not true. There's nothing you'd like better."

Ecklie just scowled.

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He had been making a sandwich when he got the call. It had been a hard shift but he wasn't tired. He more annoyed at the fact that he would miss the marathon on bugs that he planned to watch in half an hour. But he couldn't let the rest of his team have to suffer while he watched TV.

He finished his sandwich, got changed and was out of the house just as the bug marathon started.

On arriving at the scene, he almost ran over Ecklie as he had been thinking about the likelihood that the case would be solved before the end of the 5hr marathon. He was not sure whether to be glad or disappointed about 'almost running Ecklie over'. Being the type of person he was, he settled for indifferent.

Ecklie, he thought was looking rather perturbed, so when he came and knocked on Grissom's window, he took a few seconds contemplating the advantages of simple driving off. He decided however that this would infuriate Ecklie even more and he would probably split the team up again. Having recently got his team back together he was in no mood to lose them all again.

After he had shared the usual 'pleasantries' with Ecklie, he collected his kit and headed over to where Catherine was stood by a body bag.

" Catherine. Um… where's the body?"

The body bag was empty. Catherine didn't reply but instead pointed towards the edge. His eyebrow went up. Why had they been called to a suicide? Curiosity took a hold on him and he approached the edge. Looking over he realised somewhat why they had been called. About 2m below him, on a small ledge lay the remains of a teenage boy.

" He looks like a train hit him, doesn't he?" asked Catherine walking up behind him.

"The nearest train line is quite a distance so are you proposing he was hit walked here and jumped off? More likely that it was that truck that's lying on it's side way down there!" replied a new voice. The two leaned over to see the truck before turning to see the familiar face of detective Jim Brass. " I wasn't expecting you two. What happened to Day shift and the rest of yours guys?"

"Days' tapped out, Greg is helping the lab get through DNA from the new cases, Sara's finishing off the deadly twins case, Nick doesn't get back from his parents' till 3 and I haven't a clue where Warrick is but I am going to kill him when he does turn up." answered Catherine without stopping for a breath.

Grissom and Brass exchanged glances before walking off in different directions. Grissom was getting bored and needed to do an experiment or something. Hopefully it would something involving a pig.


	3. Brass and Warrick

**In this chapter and for the rest of the story their will be a rather frequent mention of doughnuts / donuts. I am gona stick with doughnut coz that's how I'm used to spelling it so don't think it's just a spelling mistake. **

**My last comment is _please please please_ review even if you hate the story or if the review is only one word. (PS. SH you can't hit me around the head with your German folder anymore, I told you I would update…eventually!)**

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Unsure of what to do next, he strolled back over to his car and picked up the doughnut that he had been half way through eating earlier. He was about to take a bite when he spotted a tall, slim woman harassing one of the rookie officers. The woman looked furious while the officer looked incredibly frustrated and, although he was trying his very best to keep his temper under control, Brass had a feeling that, if he didn't intervene, the department was going to be facing a lawsuit for harassment (or quite possibly severe bodily harm the way things were going) very soon. Sighing heavily, he put the doughnut back on the dashboard of his car and started walking over to the bickering pair.

" What seems to be the problem here Ma'am?" he asked in his usual curt manner.

" Are you in charge because if you're not I'm not talking to you about the problem and," she said in a perfectly calm, snooty, English accent," _neither_ am I leaving until my questions have been answered". She said the last bit slightly pointedly at the rookie officer who then decided that Brass had the situation under control and so wandered off.

" Yes Ma'am. I am the detective in charge but if you're with the press I'm afraid there's really nothing more I can say other than what has already been said in the official press release." For a woman who had been close to erupting a seconds earlier, she seemed very calm (and rather rude) to Brass.

" I am not with the press. That" she said waving towards the edge "is my boy and these morons wont let me see him."

" Um…! How can you be so sure it's your son?"

" He went out last night and didn't come back _and_ he fits the description."

Brass was rather stunned and wasn't quite sure what to say or do. If he let the woman see the body and it wasn't her kid, he would be in trouble but, if it was, they could save time on getting an ID. Would she be able to identify the body even if it was her son? The face was pretty distorted. He could take DNA and match it to the boy's but that would take time. Another thing that bothered him was how the woman could be so sure it was her son and yet be so calm. However, he pushed his final thought to the back of his mind and got back to the problem at hand.

He took a moment more to ponder before realising there really was a reason why he had decided to work with the deceased rather than the living. As there were no social workers around, he decided to find the closest possible thing – Catherine.

He whistled to a nearby officer motioning him to stand with the woman, who was now inspecting her nails, and headed towards Catherine. However, before he got very far his phone went off. Looking down he saw that it was, the so-far missing, Warrick.

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He was late. Really late. Catherine was going to be so pissed. Now that he thought about it, Grissom wouldn't be too happy either, but the man never expressed his emotions. This meant that while he was getting a stern lecture off Catherine about being on time and some snide and rather unhelpful comments from Brass about getting him a watch for Christmas, Grissom would be stood behind them giving him the all-famous disappointed look.

He did actually have an excuse but he would rather face the lecture from his bosses than the crap he would get off Greg and Nick (when he got back) if they got wind of it. So for now he would just have to face up to it and keep his cool (which he was renowned for doing). Sooner or later the guys would work it out but he'd do his best to make sure it was the latter.

Again he glanced at his watch. Damn it! Why the hell was there so much traffic at 10am? Shouldn't everyone be at work already? He hit the wheel in frustration. All around him people were yelling but he couldn't see how that was going to help in their current situation. As his last thread of patience snapped, he got out of the car to go and see what the problem was. The site that greeted him was definitely not what he expected.

"Da-amn!"

About 20m ahead of him stood a car. Not on four wheels like some of the cars around. Not on two wheels like other cars and the bikes around. Not even on one wheel like one of the bikes whose front wheel was half way into a ground floor window. This car was driving up a lamppost, resting on its back bumper.

The cops had already arrived so he got his badge out of the glove box, locked his car and started to make his way over. He recognised Officer Green from a case he had worked a couple of months earlier. He showed his badge to the rookie that was in charge of keeping the public at bay and ducked under the yellow tape making his way over to the officer.

"Hey man! What's the deal here? Need my expertise?"

"Warrick! Hi! Long time no see. You get caught in the traffic?"

"Yeah. It's backed up till the strip! What happened?"

"Some drunken lady tried to turn around in the middle of the road. Leaving us with one hell of a mess. Three dead, twelve on the way to Palms and some are still trapped in their cars, including the drunken lady."

"This drunken lady, is she dead?"

"Dunno. The paramedics haven't been able to get close enough to tell but at the very least she's knocked out. Good thing to. The engines fallen through and landed flat bang on her legs and, no matter how well your cooling system is, that engine is gona be Hot. It'll be a miracle if her legs make it through this. But then again maybe she deserved it for…"

"Back-up." Warrick interrupted before Green could enter any further into one of his rambles. "If no-one can get near the body, how did you run a blood alcohol test?"

"We…uh…we haven't. But…"

"If you haven't run a blood alcohol test, how do you know she was drunk?"

" Well witnesses all say she looked to be driving under in…"

"And we both witnesses aren't always the most reliable source of information so lets just follow… how would Grissom put it… the thing that never lies – the evidence. I need to call Brass and tell him that I'm gona be a couple more hours late. Do me a favour, call the lab and tell someone to reassign me to this case."

"Like who?"

"Um…ask for Sara."


End file.
